Pensioners save dying town

A dying town in the former East Germany has made a remarkable recovery after attracting elderly people from the West.

A third of the population of Görlitz left after the fall of the Berlin Wall, as younger residents sought a new life far from the remote border region with Poland. To refill one of Central Europe’s best-preserved Renaissance and Baroque centres, the town began to lure pensioners struggling to get by in the more expensive West.

“If a pensioner in Hamburg, Munich or Stuttgart has a small apartment and has to count every euro, they can come here to Görlitz and for two thirds of the money can have a huge Art Nouveau apartment,” said Michael Wieler, deputy mayor of Görlitz. “The historic streets and…